Prescriptions on the road?


oiseaux

New Member
Bill and I will become fulltimers next fall. We are BOTH retired federal employees and we both have Blue Shield-Blue Cross. We both take prescription drugs that have to be prescribed by a doctor. When we're fulltiming, we won't be near our doctor. How do we get our medicine? Do we have to keep going back to our doctor? Help! :question:
 

DL Rupper

Senior Member
RE: Prescriptions on the road?

Have your doctor perscribe 1 years worth of refills for whatever you need and you can have Wal-Mart or Walgreens transfer the perscripition from store-to-store when you need refills. You will have to go back to your doctor once a year or get a new doctor wherever you are when your perscription expires.

I'm a retired Federal worker also and have Blue Cross/Blue Shield and it works pretty good. We have had to use it on the road before and haven't had too many problems. However, having said that its easier to use the local prefered providers/doctors that are on the particular negotiated Blue Cross/ Blue Shield plan in the area you retired from. For one thing you get a annual book of preferred providers in your local area. When you are on the road it is a little harder to find preferred providers, but it can be worked. For instance my local Blue Cross/Blue Shield is called Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield. In other areas it may have a different name and each area negotiates the prices they pay their preferred providers separately from other parts of the country. What this will mean to you is that it may cost more for medical procedures that require a co-pay. For example a procedure that may cost $2000 in one area and $1500 in another will cost you 10% of the procedure's cost after the yearly deductable is paid or $200 opposed to $150.

For that reason we try to go back to where we stated once a year for doctor check-ups and to get new prescriptions. I hope some of this makes sense. :bleh:
 

Kirk

Senior Member
Re: Prescriptions on the road?

Nearly all of us who are fulltime do as suggested by DL. A good way to get your prescription drugs is to get a prescription for a three month supply with three refills. If you then use a mail-order pharmacy you can easily have them send the refill to your mail forwarding service that you use as your legal address. As long as you order your refills at least a month before you run out, this will give plenty of time to get the needed drugs. We have been doing that now for more than 6.5 years and it works great. You can order a refill only one month after you start the three month supply so you have plenty of time.

For doctors and dentists, I know of no fulltimers who do not return to the same one each year for the annual physical and dental checks. It is important to do that as most doctors will not renew prescriptions of another doctor unless they run their own tests. Also, it is good to have a doctor who is familiar with your needs. On the one occasion when we were not able to return to the state for more than 15 months, we made arrangments to have our son's doctor work with our doctor and do some checks and our doctor gave us one more three month supply. Like most fulltimers, we also carry a complete set of our medical records with us.
 
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